GSD Course Bulletin - Fall 2010 - SCI-06201-00

COURSE DETAILS

Instructor(s)

Spiro Pollalis

Course Description

The course rigorously navigates future architects to the discipline of structural engineering, as an integral component of conceiving and designing buildings. Decisions on geometry and materials, subject to static and transient forces, seen from the perspective of strength, stiffness and durability, accompany architectural considerations. The course focuses on the structural systems of a series of buildings and bridges as case studies, with an emphasis on how structural decisions have influenced architecture, while presenting in parallel the fundamental principles. The approach of the course and the short learning time requires a simultaneous approach to the complete spectrum of structural systems and materials. Students learn to describe in detail the behavior of buildings, to use structural analysis software for the preliminary design of critical architectural components of buildings, and to search the Internet for preparing meaningful discussions with the engineers.